The Good Bet
by HecateA
Summary: Every day of summer counts if you're Travis Stoll.  And you have to be good for all of them.  That is; if Travis can do it...    Tratie, rated T only because I don't know how far language goes.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: As voted by my two best friends, I'll start this story tonight. It's really short- 11 chapters, and they're all short too. To give you an idea, it took me two days to write it and only reaches 38 pages on Microsoft Word right now. Anyways I hope you like it! **

**Dedicated to: To anyone who's ever made me laugh [read: Dorquettes, guy friends, Rick Riordan, Rachid Baddouri, Maman, etc.] **

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><p>1<p>

The Bet

Some say that the first day of summer is the first day there's a heat wave, or the first day where you get to sleep in for the first weekday.

But they're wrong; the first day of summer is when you get pranked. It's been like that for Katie for now 6 years.

She had been offered 3 different types of snacks, invited to 2 different parties that would never happen and asked to look at 5 different distractions that she knew actually weren't there since she'd gotten to Camp. About… 4 hours ago?

But she refused this year. Travis Stoll would _not_ make a fool out of her this summer. Nor the rest of cabin 11. But especially not Travis Stoll.

Sadly, Cassia Viridis didn't have that kind of resolution, so Katie sat on her bunk, removing some kind of larvae from the 7 year old's blond braid.

Finally Katie was pretty sure she'd gotten them all out (or at least she hoped because holding the tweezers had given her a serious hand cramp).

"Stay away from the Stolls, Cassia!" Katie warned as Cassia made a run for the door, and Katie put the rinsed tweezers back in the bathroom.

"Yes Katie," Cassia promised. Her little sister was nearly out when she screamed; "Katie they're right out the door!"

Katie kneed the drawer closed and stomped to the cabin's front door, and Cassia ran into her leg, staying as close as a leech.

"Stolls- will you stop harassing my-"

"No need for plural, Katie, it's just me." Travis said. He was leading on the railing to the 2/3 steps that led to the cabin door. His brown hair was falling in his eyes, and he had a sarcastic smile on his lips, and upturned eyebrows over his sparkling blue eyes. His hands were tucked into his cargo pants pockets. Actually, Katie was ready to bet that they weren't his pants and that he'd just stolen them.

"Go Cassia," Katie encouraged. She eased the door to a close as Cassia sprinted down the staircase, and turned to Travis.

"Seriously?" Katie asked. "Larvae?"

"In her hair? Oh that wasn't lar-"

"Drop that sentence Travis, if you know what's good for you." Katie snapped, raising a finger. "Would it kill you to be nice to the little kids at least? One summer?"

"Yes," Travis said. "But I _am_ a man of bargain."

Katie rolled her eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"My holly side can be bought." Travis said raising his hands nonchalently.

"Holly side? Ha! It'd have to be created first." Katie said- but the gears were turning. Money…Okay, if she walked around with a can saying 'Donate now for Travis Stoll to be good' she's probably make a few drachmas off of every cabin and the Big House.

"Okay, how much do you want?" Katie asked.

"Money? That's not what I want. If I'd need it, I'd steal it."

"Well, what do you want?" Katie asked.

"Something I can't steal," Travis said. "A kiss. From you."

"Me kiss you? Forget about it!"

"Okay, if you're willing to let my holly side sink under all the other crap when I've named my price and offered a deal…"

"I'm not kissing you, I rather kiss a frog. There's a better chance that one of them becomes a prince."

"Well, nice talking to you Katie. Now if you excuse me- Connor thinks he's discovered a special kind of bed bug that's been hibernating in Chris' bunk for decades. Who knows what it might eat, eh?" Travis turned his heels but a thought struck Katie.

A whole summer of pulling larvae-that-actually-wasn't-larvae out of hair? Of dealing with the traumatised population of Camp's little kids? Of paying ransoms for diaries or embarrassing baby pictures? She thought back to Cassia who'd taken _forever _to calm down…

"Okay!" She yelled out. "Okay Travis, I accept! If you're good all summer I'll do it." She called.

Travis was back to standing in front of her in seconds.

"On the lips?"

"Yes."

"With tongue?"

"Definitely not."

"Not just a peck, right?"

"We'll see. But you've got to be good. G-o-o-d. Go look it up in a dictionary because I'm pretty sure that that word is brand new to you. It means no spitballs, no pranks, no food-fights, no stealing, no rude remarks about Percy or Annabeth or anybody else, no vandalism, no lying to little kids or anybody, no snooping and no cheating anyone or anything." She counted everything on her fingers. Travis' eyes sprawled. That was a lot of fingers…

"That's 9 things for you to not-do, Travis. Actually, 10."

"What's number 10?"

"Nobody _ever _finds out about this."

"Not even Connor?" Common you know he's my evil twin."

"Yeah, sure, he's the evil one. And… Well… Just Connor, but if he tells anyone, deal's off and you both die." Katie said.

"Via plant?" Travis snickered.

"Don't tempt me."

"Done!" Travis said with a grin. He and Katie shook hands to seal the deal, swore it on the Styx, and parted ways.


	2. Chapter 2 No Vandalism

2

No Vandalism

Malcolm was half asleep when he opened the door.

"Travis, what the heck?" Malcolm asked.

"It's important," Travis said. "I have to borrow a dictionary."

"A dictionary?" Malcolm asked.

"Yes, it's really important!"

"Can it wait until morning?"

"No! It wasn't supposed to wait until now, but I forgot- please?" Travis said. Malcolm turned around.

"Annabeth?" He asked. "You're in charge, you deal with him."

Travis heard someone complaining in Ancient Greek and Annabeth appeared in the doorframe, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Travis, has anyone taught you to read a watch? The big hand is on the 12 and the small hand is on the 2. Normal people sleep at this time."

"I know but I need a dictionary!"

"A dictionary?"

"Yes! How is that so hard to understand? Aren't you guys supposed to be ridiculously smart?"

"Which is exactly why we don't understand why _you _need a dictionary." Annabeth said.

"Well, you know, demigods are often really smart people that do smart stuff for the world, so, you know, informing myself seems right due to my culture and heritage and whatcrap."

"Mm-hmm…" Annabeth said obviously not convinced. "If I give you 5 minutes and you promise to be very quiet, will you leave?"

"YES!" Travis yelled in victory. "I mean," he whispered, "yes."

Annabeth let him in.

The chaos in cabin 6 is comparable to cabin 11 except, well, better. And it's not exactly chaos, it's just a lot of stuff going on.

Piles of paper and graphs are stacked on the work tables and drawing tables, stuck on the wall and model planes and boats and tanks and others hang everywhere or are perfectly dusted on shelves. Right then, an enormous horse so tall it nearly touched the highest hanging plane was displayed on the center tables. It seemed to be made of tiny gold squares overlapping each other.

"Hey, what's that?"

"Fragile- don't touch it." Annabeth said. She led him to a shelf to the back of the room and handed him the heaviest book that Travis had ever seen. The sad part was that it wasn't the biggest in the cabin.

She stacked some pages printed out from the internet, piled them up with blueprints and a textbook with words so long they _had _to be Russian or something, and she put it down on the now free spot.

"Sit- you have five minutes." Annabeth said.

Travis opened the dictionary and started looking for 'g'.

**Good**

**/gʊd/ ** **Show Spelled [goo****d] Show IPA adjective, bet·ter, best, noun, interjection, adverb **

**adjective **

**1**. morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man.

**2.** satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree: a good teacher; good health.

**3.** of high quality; excellent.

**4.** right; proper; fit: It is good that you are here. His credentials are good.

**5**. well-behaved: a good child

Well he was screwed.

Stupid dictionary- did it have to tell him that he was totally doomed at failing this bet? Travis was the king of bets (he'd recently kicked Chris off the throne when Justin Bieber had actually managed to get famous), and this was _not _one he wanted to lose. He kept reading.

**noun **

**42. **profit or advantage; worth; benefit: What good will that do? We shall work for the common good.

**43. **excellence or merit; kindness: to do good.

**44. **moral righteousness; virtue: to be a power for good.

**45. **(especially in the grading of U.S. beef) an official grade below that of "choice."

**46. **goods,

**a. **possessions, especially movable effects or personal property.

**b. **articles of trade; wares; merchandise: canned goods.

**c. **Informal . what has been promised or is expected: to deliver the goods.

**d. **Informal . the genuine article.

**e. **Informal . evidence of guilt, as stolen articles: to catch someone with the goods.

**f. **cloth or textile material: top-quality linen goods.

**g. **Chiefly British . merchandise sent by land, rather than by water or air.

Oh he liked goods…

His brain slapped itself.

_Focus Stoll; never again will Katie Gardner even envision the possibility to kiss you ever so if you blow this you suck._

But how the heck could he _not _blow this?

Morally excellent and virtuous. He had virtues; he just chose to ignore them.

Satisfactory in quality, quantity or degree. Well, there could be two of him depending on how you saw Connor, and quality depended on what kind of a day Stoll-junior was having.

Of high quality; excellent. Let's face it, he was an excellent thief, an excellent prankster, and excellent at insults. Too bad that didn't count. Or maybe it did… He'd have to ask Katie. No- it probably fell under 'rude remarks' and if Travis actually asked she'd think he wasn't taking her seriously and etc, etc, etc, so forth. Maybe he should just move to Europe until summer ended, that sounded way simpler to Travis.

Right: proper: fit. His grandma used to yell at him that he was a delinquent and that he'd do nothing good in the world (all he'd done was take one caramels too many from the little dish thing! They didn't even _taste _good! He thought he was doing her a favour getting them out of her way!), so he probably wasn't 'proper'…

Well behaved; a good child… Well, Travis was definitely screwed.

Maybe if he blotted out that part of the dictionary Katie would have no proof… Hey, look, one of the kids had let his pencil case there and Travis barely had to move to get this big heavy-duty black permanent marker out…

He pushed the cap off the marker and he was about to touch the thick end to the ridiculously thin dictionary page, when-

_No vandalism._

He heard Katie's voice in the back of his head. Even when it was telling him to be the anti-Travis he loved hearing it. Katie got cute when she was frustrated with him. She pursed her lips inwards and frowned, so her eyebrows scrunched up over her leaf green eyes. Even cuter than usual.

He wanted that kiss.

So he recapped the marker and put it back in the pencil case (which was decorated with math signs like +, -, x, π, etc. Geek, much? Sheesh, at least be subtle about it. Some people were just asking for cabin 11 to start a 'International Calculator Destroying Day' petition.

He closed the dictionary and gave it back to Annabeth who'd gone in the corner to study a map of some empire that Travis had never heard about, in a sudden strike of midnight inspiration.

"Here you go," he said. Annabeth turned and took the dictionary from him.

"Next time; come while it's still light out." She said, putting it back on a shelf. Looking at all the heavy books, Travis thought of how much pressure was probably on the shelf right now. It would be so easy to rig for…

_Good. Be good. Calm. Zen. Breath. Good._

"Okay." He said. Before he could do something crazy like say 'thank you', he left the cabin.


	3. Chapter 3 No Food Fights

3

No Food Fights

Connor leaned in towards Travis.

"See that girl over there? Cabin 10," he said. Travis looked up from his Kraft Dinner (best Canadian invention EVER) at the girl in question. It was Émilie Franchebois, a pretty African-American girl from Louisiana. She had curly brown hair, and she was thin, short, and graceful. Her eyes were warm brown and she had a bright smile, fingering the golden loops at her ears.

"Yeah, Émilie." Travis said.

"Okay, look at Jessica, next to her." Connor said. A blond hellhound that had chased Connor and Travis around camp for an hour when they'd replaced the batteries in her hand-held hair dryer with rolls of life-savers.

"Yeah."

"She came in to supper late. This can only mean one thing." Connor hinted.

"She spent a _lot _of time on that hairdo." Travis said.

"Exactly. You handle anything cheesy substance, I'll pitch the starch, and I'll tell Kate to do the honours of throwing the vegetables."

"No!" Travis said.

"Okay fine, you can throw the starch although I don't see how Kraft Dinner fills that description…2

"I meant, like, no. Like, no no." Travis said.

Connor looked at him like his brother had just gone nuts.

"What do you mean 'no'? We're been waiting the whole year to throw some food at Jessica Parker, and her scary boyfriend from Ares isn't here right now! This is golden, brother, golden!"

"I…" Travis looked over at cabin 4's table. Katie was laughing with her siblings. Her thick and straight and flat brown hair was put up simply and she wore a squared blouse unbuttoned over a white tank top and well-worn jeans. She was laughing and no matter how cute Katie looked when she was frustrated with him, she looked _beautiful _when she laughed. Travis really, really wanted to be the one that made her laugh and his only chance at that was the bet.

"Look, you've got to swear on the Styx that you won't tell anyone." Travis said.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I have legal rights!"

"I'm your brother, my legal rights crush yours." Travis said. Connor looked at him with the 'I hate the fact that you're older' look, Travis gave him the 'I know' look and Connor finally agreed.

So Travis quietly told him about the bet and how he had to be good and how Katie had specified that food fights were out.

"Dude, really?" Connor said.

"Yeah, really."

"What fun is she? Really Travis? Why Katie?"

"I don't know, it's just she's so… She doesn't overreact like everyone else when we pull a prank, she's always natural and nice and she takes care of everyone and thinks about every kid in the Demeter cabin and then in the other cabins so… I don't know. She's always herself and what you see is what she is."

"Still, really Trav?"

"You don't get it," Travis argued. "But it's really important to me."

"Am I mentioned in this bet?"

"Only in the fact that I can tell you but if you tell somebody she's killing us both, _plus _that's an automatic loss."

"Oh thank gods!" Connor said. He pulled back on his spoon and let the potatoes fly. SPLAT!

"Oh my gosh!" Jessica said, reaching for the soggy-with-gravy projectile in the back of her head. She touched with another hand, looked at it and shrieked in disgust. Piper had to walk her back to the cabin.

"'Cause I'm not going good for the world."

"This isn't for the world, it's for Katie."

"Well, her either. But hey, do you think I can get Émilie to make that bet with me? Think about it; we can have nearly any girl on Half-Blood hill with this! You're a genius, Travis!"


	4. Chapter 4 No Cheating

4

No Cheating

"Kay, so Leonardo says that tonight it's three drachma to play, so cough it up." Chris said, pulling a tattered baseball cap from under his bunk.

The hat was passed around the circle of cabin 11's residents and they each coughed up 3 drachmas or, if they were broke, backed up and sat on the bunks to observe.

Travis dumped in three golden coins and passed the hat to his left, so to Connor.

In case you were wondering; Leonardo was an unclaimed kid who was, like, 5 and got to pick how much it cost to play each night. Everyone threw in 3 bucks, and there were now 11 people playing; so the winner got all the money. Tonight; 33 drachmas. Leonardo (call him Leo and be warned; the kid bites) also enjoyed making his siblings pay in candy, paper money and foreign currencies (in which case he was kicked out of cabin 11 and someone else picked).

"Kay, cards are shuffled," Chris said, passing them out.

"I start." Eva called.

"No I start!" Chris protested.

"I start!"

"I'm older." Connor said.

"Loser, I'm older than you." Travis said, smacking his brother in the back of the head.

"Yeah, but I'm older than any of you." Chris said, smacking them both behind the head.

"Fine, fine, Christie starts." Travis said.

"Cool," Chris said. "Eva, do you have any threes?"

Travis didn't know what the other cabins did after curfew, but it was a sacred tradition of cabin 11 to play Go Fish with gambling.

Why Gold Fish?

Because every idiot knew how to play Go Fish, but some children of Hermes dared present themselves to camp without any poker experience. It saved time explaining and made it all 'more fair' although no one gave a Styx about that.

"Go Fish." Eva said. Chris picked up a card and put his first four cards down- fives.

"Dude- for real?"

"Re-shuffle, re-shuffle!" Packrat yelled.

"No re-shuffle, its luck!" Chris protested.

"Re-shuffle disguarded," Kate said. She wasn't playing, she was basically the referee. She sat on a top bunk so she could see everyone's cards and looked out for cheating.

"Okay, go Mel." Chris said to the girl on his right.

The game went on with nobody else making a pair except for Chris.

"Travis," Vanessa said, "Do you have a 4?"

Travis looked at his cards. He had the three fours that Vanessa didn't have. Aww man, he couldn't just _give _those away! And it was his turn to be placed in Kate's blind spot (they rotated each week), so he could get away with it…

_No cheating._

Katie would never know, right? Nah, of course not. She hadn't, like, chipped his jacked or planted cameras in his shoelaces. That would be creepy but cool at the same time.

But at the same time he wanted to win this bet. He didn't want to cheat his way out of a bet about not cheating. Travis loved irony, but this was serious Katie-Gardner-involving matter.

He took his three cards and gave them to Vanessa who put them down.

They all stared at Travis in shock.

"You gave them to her?" Chris asked.

"Yeah…" Travis said feeling pathetic.

"But… You're in the blind spot."

"Yeah..." Travis said feeling even more pathetic. They stared at him in shock.

"Should I go get a medic? Are you feeling nauseous? How many fingers?" Chris said sticking his hand in Travis' face. Travis swatted it away.

"Leave me alone, Howie's turn." He muttered.


	5. Chapter 5 No Rude Remarks

I can count the number of days until the Son of Neptune on one hand- that's very exciting for me! Yippee! It's about time for me to finish my own Son of Neptune story then, isn't it? The last chapter of the epilogue will be out tommorow on Fanpop. AHHH!

Anyways, please review and check out my new oneshot, Counting! (if you can stand anymore of me after this). Thanks to those who come keep reading!

**Disclaimer: The rights to the Percy Jackson series can't be found on ebay, therefore I have no way of getting my hands on them. Sad face.**

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><p>5<p>

No Rude Remarks

Travis' face was starting to get comfortable, being squished on the counter of the Camp Store.

See; his logic was that if he became responsible more he'd have an easier time being good. Seeing as being good was about as easy as dragging a plane via wire attached to eyelid, he was ready to try anything.

Running the Camp store was boring.

Bo-ring.

B-b-b-b-boring.

Bo-rrrrrrrrr-ing.

So boring he was muttering 'boring' out loud in a million different ways.

"Umm, Travis, you okay?" Someone asked. Travis turned his head and saw Percy.

"No." He let his head roll back and then got up.

"I'm b-b-b-b-borrrrrrrrred." He said popping the 'd'.

"Okay." Percy said. "Umm, look, I ordered something the other day and Jake said he'd send it here so nobody would see it."

"What is it?" Travis asked. "Is it illegal?"

"No, it's just Annabeth goes in the forge often and she couldn't see it."

"Oh. Is it a ring or something? Are you getting married?"

"Shut up, Travis." Percy said. "And it's a necklace."

"Okay." Travis said.

"Did Jake give it to you or I don't know…" Percy said.

"What's it like?"

"Well, it's an owl."

"Aren't you being a tad predictable, Percy?"

"Shut up, Travis. Do you?"

"What's the owl like?"

"Well it's small and celestial bronze and has these weird glasses."

"An owl with glasses?"

'Definitely predictable' was next in line, but that probably counted as rude. He heard Katie rattle on. _He's trying to do something nice for his girlfriend and it's really sweet and you shouldn't laugh at him Travis, because then he might not do it, and think of how happy it would make Annabeth!_

Yeah; she'd definitely be thinking from everyone's point of view and supporting them all (minus the rude one, so sadly him).

"I mean- cool."

"Do you have it or does Jake? Just tell me so I can get this over with."

"I haven't seen it."

"You haven't even checked." Percy noticed.

_Very good Percy._

But as you can probably guess, that's not what Travis said. He went with;

"I've been counting everything for 2 hours. Did you know we have 300 different postcards and stamps to over 34 countries? Does that seem unreasonable to you?"

"Umm, I don't know."

"I'm so bored I'm doing math. Math, Percy, _math! _What is wrong with me?" His head slammed back to the counter, but bolted up.

"Hey, can you take my shift? I'll do whatever job you have to do- we can switch or something, I'm desperate."

"No," Percy said. "I'm the new sword fighting instructor, remember? I'm supposed to be at the arena in 10 minutes with Demeter and Dionysus."

"Please can we switch!" Travis begged.

"Okay, this job is stressing you out way too much Travis." Percy said. "You might want to take a break or something. See you later." Travis was about to say 'you suck', but that was rude, right? Yeah; he was pretty sure it was rude…

His head slammed back down on the counter.

He. Hated. Being. Good.

But he did like Katie Gardner…

Percy walked to the Center Green where Katie was sitting with her neck stretched, like she was hoping to see the counter for the Camp store. Annabeth sat next to her with a book.

"What did he say?" Katie asked as soon as she saw Percy.

"Well, he's bored like Hades," Percy told them.

"Was he rude?"

"Travis isn't a rude person Katie."

"Well, was he being a smart mouth?"

"Not even." Percy said.

"Hmmm…" Katie said. She leaned back on the bench.

"Seaweed brain, out of here, this is girl material." Annabeth said.

"You're welcome for the help, by the way." Percy said sarcastically, before going to the Sword Arena like he was supposed to.

Annabeth turned to face Katie.

"What do you think?"

"I didn't expect Travis to do it," she mused. "Impressive, and he's not even cheating behind my back…"

"Impressed?" Annabeth said, raising an eyebrow and smiling.

"Not yet." Katie said, before that ship sailed. "Not yet."


	6. Chapter 6 No Spitballs

**A bit of a drabble... Then again they all are, right? Thanks for the reviews but more importantly... THE SON OF NEPTUNE! **

**That's tommorow Ladies and Genies, so put on your helmet if you live in my area because if you are in my way on the path to the bookstore I make no promises. Also; earplugs because I make no guarantees on how loud I'll scream when we figure out some immortal parents that have been confusing me like algebra. Just kidding; but if you see a kid running to a book store muttering 'oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy' be nice and let him pass no problem. What goes around comes around! Like a boomerang, minus the nailing you in the eye part. **

**Anyways, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I wouldn't be that [look above] excited about the book if I were Rick Riordan, now would I? The world would be so much safer. **

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No Spit balls

Mr D had decided that there should be a meeting for all the campers.

So basically he had put all activities and project on hiatus. No kidding- he'd frozen a couple who were making out and that's how they were sitting in the front row of the amphitheatre. It was very funny and Travis really wished the 'no rude remark' thing would take a break. Actually, he wished he could pause the whole bet for a while.

It'd been over a week since he, Travis Abraham Stoll (well, he didn't have a middle name but he sounded so serious when he said it like that), had stolen a single thing and he'd played 5 clean games of Friday Night Go Fish and whenever-there's-money Poker. Not only was his morale and rep going down, but he was basically broke too.

By the end of summer; it'd be worth it though.

That's what he was telling himself as Mr D went on and on about rules and regulations, and you're not supposed to go in the forest because you'll die but you can go in anyways and I encourage it, etc.

Someone tapped Travis on the arm and very subtly he looked over his shoulder and saw Eva's hand, closed around a dozen or so straws she must've stolen from the kitchen.

"Take one," she said very fast, her lips barely moving.

Oh boy spit balls!

They were sitting right behind the Athena cabin! Those guys would figure it out and hate it, and the fact that they couldn't just call them out in front of Mr D and everyone would frustrate them even more! And if you were a really sharp shooter (like Travis prided himself to be), he could even nail Ares in the front row. Boredom buster!

He reached out, not even looking towards Eva but someone sneezed behind him. He turned around and saw Cassia, the little girl from Demeter that Connor had nailed earlier in the summer.

His eyes followed to the far end of the line where Katie was sitting down. Her legs were crossed and both her hands were just positioned on her thigh. She hadn't even noticed him.

_Be good Travis, be good. Even if it means no spit balls._

"Actually Eva, I think Mr D is sort of keeping an eye on Con-man and I, so I'll lay low." Travis said. He felt twisted up inside. He wanted spit balls! He was _so _bored! Why would anyone be good on their own personal choice? This was madness! Madness!

"Since when has that stopped you? Since when has anything ever stopped you until now?" Eva said. The question mustn't have been a big intrigue in her life because she turned around to pass down the straws a nanosecond after. Good.

As his siblings were trying to make spit balls as quietly as possible, Travis started having the near-undeniable urge to call them idiots and show them how it's done.

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Stink bombs, rubber snakes, water balloons… No- _good _happy thoughts.

Well; adding responsibility to his life was obviously not working to retune his brain to think 'good'. What a rip off, there went 3 hours of his life.

To keep himself from screaming as Mr D ruled out his all-time favourite things to do from the rules, and that 50 something demigods sat in the sun sweating and resisting the urge to run away; Travis peaked around his shoulder and looked at Katie.

She was bored out of his mind too, twirling a rebel streak of hair that had dropped down from her high ponytail. She caught his eye at some point and smiled weakly. Travis rolled his eyes, yawned and pretended to fall asleep. His head had nearly tipped onto the back of his seat when he shook himself awake and jumped freakishly high. Katie bit her lip to stop laughing and looked back in front.

Travis smiled, but unlike Katie he didn't look back in front.

Travis started wondering how her hair smelt like- which was the total proof that his brain was slowly dying and going out of control.

Something natural, he figured. Maybe a flower like lilac or something, since he doubted that 'wheat field' was a brand of shampoo. Maybe he could invent that and impress her. Inventing random things was a Hermes-kid thing, right?

She might also smell like a herb or something. Lavender, lemon balm, rosemary, peppermint, stuff like that. Wait- did Lavender count as a herb? What about lemon balm and peppermint- was there a special name for specific herbs you stick in tea? He'd have to find out.

Maybe he should find out a lot about farming and impress Katie with his nature knowledge. Then maybe in twenty years he could say 'I found out the Latin name of lemon balm because I was wondering what your hair might smell like and I figured maybe it smelled like it' and they'd laugh about it or something. Or he could ask her and they could bond or something… Wait- back to point…

Spices could be cool too. Cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and junk.

It might be a fruit though. Like apples or something.

Travis figured that Katie was too pretty to smell bad, and she cared too much- but not about herself. Travis figured that half the things she did were to show a good example, for her little brothers and sisters who were here got raised right. She cared so much about them… Which blew Travis' minds away because as far as he could tell they were all little balls of fury that liked fruit and all got the flu at the exact same time.

She probably did smell like apples. Or citrus. She drank a lot of orange juice, so she probably did like citrus. Did lemon count as citrus? It was acid and all that. If it did, did lemon balm count as a citrus?

Sometimes Travis thought it sucked that demigods couldn't use Google.

Sometimes Travis thought it sucked that he had to be good too.

Correction: Travis totally thought it sucked and his conscience was telling him that spit balls were in his in-born instincts and that he shouldn't be ignoring their existence like this. But then the lovey-dovey thing part said that it'd all be worth it.

He really wanted that kiss. Yeah, Katie the farm girl out of all the girls at camp. Not the hottest, not the easiest girl to get a date with (note: the _hardest _to get a date with after the oracle's mummy), not the most flirty... But there was something about Katie the farm girl that was different from all the girls at camp. There was something about Katie the farm girl that he really liked, and he wasn't much of a ladies' man, but he wanted there to be something about Travis the klepto that made Katie like him too. Maybe a kiss would do the trick? Travis didn't know and it honestly sounded like a badly written novel to him, or one of those fan fiction things on the Internet, but it was true (as desperate as that made Travis sound).

Then again, he was theorising on how her hair smelt. Travis _was _desperate.


	7. Chapter 7 No Stealing

**Meneh meneh meneh meneh NEPTUNE! **

**Holly Smokes I am too excited for this, my heart wiht pop out of my chest anytime! (so if chapter 8 never comes... It was nice knowing all of you).**

**I'm wearing orange, jeans and that horrible Camp necklace I made myself with the beads looking horible. Oh well who cares about my failures at clay painting- SON OF NEPTUNE!**

**Anyways for the next few days my brain will be flipping back and forth like bacon in a pan (very nice, is it not?), so I've decided to post now to honour the book, and to keep you guys going until further notice.**

**Sorry if the revision sucks, as I've said multiple times; I. Am. Very. Excited. (!)**

* * *

><p>7<p>

No Stealing

It was free period.

Travis was really frustrated with this whole 'good' thing, and he really felt like hurting someone or something. He decided to go for something because he figured nobody would appreciate it if he started a flash-mob. Shooting sticks with pointy bits seemed like a good way to cause pain to inanimate material, so he went to the archery range, where a bunch of Apollo kids were hanging out.

Travis pulled back on the string and he jerked his bow upwards (but not on purpose) when he recognised some voices. It went shooting straight up.

"Heads up!" Will Solace yelled. Everyone scrambled and Travis' arrow ended up planting itself mid-way between him and the target, but Travis was paying attention to the two voices coming- alias Katie and Annabeth (although he didn't care about Annabeth and even if he did, Percy would kill him).

"Sorry folks!" Travis said to the other people who'd come. The Apollo kids were looking at him like 'amateur' and shooting 3 arrows at a time in bulls-eye, just to make Travis feel self-conscience.

The archery skills weren't why.

"Nice shot, Travis." Annabeth called.

_Nice boyfriend, guess we both have something to work on. _

No. Rudeness was bad. Rudeness was bad.

A small part of him just died.

Maybe he should start yoga. It might help. He'd ask Chiron if camp would invest in a Wii and a Wii Fit board later, and if he said no then he could just- no, not even, he couldn't just _steal _one now.

He was good. Zen. Calm. In tune with the inner holiness. That's why he needed the Wii Fit yoga in the first place.

They walked past right behind him, and Travis heard the sound of something very small hitting the earth, with ears as sharp as the arrow he'd nearly killed someone with.

He waited for Katie and Annabeth (but who cared about Annabeth) to walk away before turning around and looking for what'd been dropped.

It was the stupid little owl with freakish glasses thing that Percy had bugged him about. Annabeth must've dropped it. It was made out of actual celestial bronze, and he wasn't sure if the silver was actually silver or not… Either way, he knew a guy who'd buy this off of-

NO!

Travis Stoll, shut up! Your inner brain was trying to scrunch up and catch fire to all possible relationships with Katie Gardner with its constant improperness or whatever it was that made him not-good! Bad, Travis, bad!

He bent and picked it up.

"Hey Annabeth," he said. Both girls spun around, looking surprise. Travis' jaw was locked together. Common, that guy would pay him good drachmas…

"You, umm, dropped this." Travis said. He tossed it at her and she caught it.

"Wow, thank you Travis." She said. She tied it back around her neck, and they both carried on.

It was at times like this that Travis sort-of wished he was working at the camp store because the counter there was a great thing to slam your head on in frustration after you've just broken one of your most golden rules- _Thou shall steal as much as thou want. _

* * *

><p>"Wow, I can't believe it," Annabeth said. "He really wants to impress you Kates."<p>

"I guess… Polite is one thing, but no stealing?"

"You impressed yet?"

"Summer's not over," Katie said.


	8. Chapter 8 No Pranks

The Son of Neptune was . That, or Scrumdidilyunctiousepic. You pick. Personally I find them both equally as hard to spell, so I'm just going with smileys such as :O or O_O. All depending on what bit of the book you're at. It took me under 7 hours because I have a problem that way. Anyways, now that that's out of my system- 365 days to go until the next book! :D

Oh boy this is going to be a long time...

Anyways, I was crept out by some resemblances Reyna and Hazel bore with my OC characters Hazel and Reyna in 'The Son of Neptune' which may be found on Fanpop, but I was spazzing out too much to think about that a whole lot. Whatever, hope you like!

**Disclaimer: The new book would be out right now (or at least in my hands) if I were Rick Riordan. Don't go look in a bookstore (or in my hands); it's my funky way of telling you I'm not Rick Riordan.**

* * *

><p>8<p>

No Pranks

Travis, Connor, Chris, Howie, Leonardo and Packrat were all huddled up in cabin 11.

"We're going to have to cover double this year because Johnny and Fernandez are gone, which means that just this year we leave the Big 3 cabins alone because they have minimal occupants and minimal effect. Oh, and cabin 8 because the hunters slap hard." Connor said, moving little Monopoly pieces obtained from the Big House (Mr D had gone into a there-must-be-something-more-than-Pinochle phase) across a very specific aerial map of Camp. They'd spent 20 minutes arguing over which monopoly piece they were and now they were planning _it._

"Actually, triple." Travis said, uneasy. Everyone looked at him crooked.

"What do you mean, triple?" Chris asked. "You think we _should _do cabin 8 this year? 'Cause the hunters are in there and they would totally kill us for stealing their toilet paper."

"No, I meant, someone's going to have to take my job." Travis said.

They blinked a few times digesting the news about as well as you would digest satyr food.

"Intervention!" Packrat yelled.

Howie and Chris took Connor each by an arm and dragged him up and to a wall. Leonardo ran for the duct tape and a Febreze bottle, and Packrat tapped Travis to the wall by the arms and legs.

"What the heck?" Travis said struggling.

"It's for your own good, man." Packrat muttered.

"Dude, what is _wrong _with you?"

"This is the yearly only-boys toilet-paper-raid. We do this every year. It's never accompanied by female help. Ever. Since toilet paper was invented!" Chris said.

"How can you just bail?" Leonardo exclaimed.

"Aren't you the one that said we should go for it even during the Titan war?" Packrat told him.

"And it's not just that, you've been acting so… Weird lately." Chris said.

"Have not!" Travis said.

Leonardo spritzed him with the bottle. At least it was water and not Febreze. He was fortunate for that; he didn't want to walk around smelling like a field of flowers and/or Katie's possible hair.

"Travis," Howie said seriously, "You held the door for Mr D the other day. You have a problem."

"I don't," Travis rolled his head. He got spritzed again.

"Denial!" Packrat called.

"Give him double Leo," Chris said. Leonardo's thumb jerked down on the push piece twice.

"You are staying on that wall until you accept it." Chris said.

"You're kidding."

_Spritz, spritz. _

"Travis you're… You're _you! _You don't regret stuff or think about it much, you just _go! _What changed? This whole summer you've been acting all…"

"All what?"

_Spritz spritz._

"I can't bring myself to say it," Chris said. "Not about you, man."

"What-"

_Spritz spritz._

"I'm allowed to talk, Leo!" Travis said. Leonardo got him in the face right then.

"You've been acting _good _this summer." Chris said.

"Dude, I'm still the same guy!" Travis said.

"What part of 'good' don't you understand?" Connor said.

"None, I even looked it up, did you know it was a noun too?" His brothers gasped.

"And I bet you didn't even write a bad word or something in the dictionary." Howie said.

"Please let me off the wall."

"He said please!" Packrat yelled out.

"You told me never to say please." Leonardo said, clutching the spritz bottle.

"Yeah. Don't you ever, Leonardo. It's just Travis. I'm afraid to say it, but he went good." Chris said.

"I heard that a kid named Rodrigue Stone went good a few years back. Supposedly he lives under the Big House in a man cave he dug himself." Packrat said.

_Who did he like? _Travis thought.

Whoever it was, he was one step ahead of Travis, because he couldn't dig a man cave. He was pretty sure it counted as vandalism. But there was an idea; he should dig a man cave in a place that didn't count as vandalism. There, he could set fire to newspaper for the pure pleasure of watching stuff burn (pyromaniac), graffiti his own little space and call out insults in peace- he could even make his man cave soundproof.

"Well great, let's find Travis a shovel and get back to our plans, please?" Connor said.

"Dude, we can't just _give _him a shovel," Howie said. "That would just make him more good. He'd go, like, dig a hole for flowers or something."

"There's an idea…" Travis said. He meant 'planting flower' with the added 'to impress Katie', but that last part was in his head, and in his head only, so it came out really wrong.

His siblings stared at him.

"You're spending the summer on that wall." Chris said.

"No, he'll listen to our plans! He'll shout them up to authority or something!" Connor said.

_Oh you suck, Stoll…_ That was just so thick (and typically Stoll- if Travis wouldn't have been held to a bet and it wouldn't have been about him- he'd have totally congratulated Connor on that one, but due to the circumstances Connor sucked big time).

"I'm not a snitch!" Travis said. "I never will be a snitch!"

"How do we know? We thought you'd never go good either; look what happened." Howie said.

So they decided it was safer to move Travis to the _outside _wall of the cabin.

Yeah… Travis wasn't sure what was worst- the fact that the outside wall had chipping paint that probably got into his shirt with nails sticking out at some places (like where his back was), that it was the wall facing the central green so he got to see everyone move and do fun stuff _except _for him, that it was in the hot sun, or that people came and asked him what he did, and when he replied 'nothing' that was exactly it.

* * *

><p>"Katie, what's the boy you like doing on a wall?" Cassia asked Katie as she walked all the younger kids to the campfire pit, where they were going to clean up a bit.<p>

"What boy?" Katie frowned.

"The one that there's two of." Cassia said.

"Two boys... Oh! Travis! No- no, Cassia, I don't like him!"

"But why is he on a wall?"

Katie looked over to the center green and saw someone duct-taped to cabin 11.

"I don't know, Cassia." Katie said. "Honneslty, I don't think I know anything about him anymore… Oh- you're too little to hear about that, common, let's race to the amphitheatre!" Katie said, and the dozen of little kids sprinted. She looked back over her shoulder. Was that some form of punishment? Oh gods- Katie hoped not… Hopefully Travis wasn't being overgood or something...

* * *

><p><em>2 hours later…<em>

Connor popped up.

"Hey, bro, guess what?"

"How dare you call me bro after what you just did. I swear, if I wasn't duct taped to this wall, I'd strangle you Stoll."

"I appreciate the love. Anyways, you know Émilie? I found a way to-"

"DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK I'LL HELP YOU WITH ÉMILIE AFTER YOU JUST TOTALLY BUSTED MY GENIUS PLAN TO GET A GIRL?" Travis said. Thankfully nobody heard, because then Katie would have had to kill him. Maybe she would've felt sorry about it, and kissed his cold, cold body but he'd be dead, so it wouldn't really matter all that much.

"Take a pill, bro."

"Get out of here."

"Nope." Connor said. "Unlike you, I'm not taped to a wall so I have all the mobility I could want. I can just sit here and stare back at you all day."

"You-"

"Careful, no rude remarks." Connor said.

And then he plopped down on the ground in front of Connor and starred at him, not to get up for another 3 hours.


	9. Chapter 9 No Lying

**I'm working on a fanfic for the next HoO book, and on another Katie and Travis- yeay! Halloween special! :D**

**Anyways, there are only 2 chapters left to this one. *cue dramatic organ music* I just thought I'd let you know; this ends at 11. Thanks for reading!**

**Disclaimer: If I were RR... I'd still eat Kraft Dinner :P (But I'm not, so I'll just eat Kraft Dinner without being RR... Barenaked Ladies referance! Sorry, my mind's on Kraft Dinner...)**

* * *

><p>9<p>

No Lying

Connor came in late.

"Hey guess what!" He told his brothers.

"What?"

"Okay; so I was talking to that daughter of Athena, Nala or whatever –although, I don't know why I was talking to her…"

"She was probably pretty." Howie said.

"Moving on..?" Packrat said.

"Anyways, so we're making fun of that girl who reads romance novels from grocery stores and garage sales all the time and then she drops a comment like 'well, love has motivated humans into doing great things'. So I'm asking her 'like what?' and she gives me a few boring examples from history and whatnot- and she also says 'or the Cabin 10 tunnel system'. I asked her what the Hades that was, and she tells me the Tunnel Legend."

"What's that?" Leonardo asked.

"I'm getting there midget. Supposedly there was this forbidden love thing at Camp, like, a million years ago-"

"That is _not_ what the daughter of Athena said." Chris said. "Annabeth chewed me out for implying that America was discovered by European colonies a million years ago."

"Okay so not those exact words- but it still had a bunch of digits I can't remember. Anyways, the girl was a daughter of Aphrodite so there was a tunnel system built for her and her boyfriend from cabin 9 to secretly meet or whatever."

"Yeah, okay." Travis said.

"Dude! Secret tunnel!" Connor said.

"Look, we can check it out, but not right now. We have 4 days until the raid and we're not done planning yet because Travis' intervention put us behind."

"Yeah, that was totally my fault." Travis said. He could still feel where the nail had been poking his back.

"Besides; someone probably knew about it before. Chiron or some Aphrodite counsellor probably boarded up the tunnel." Howie said.

"We'll check it out, but we have our priorities now."

"Yeah- like that raid that the male legacy of cabin 11 has been executing since the invention of toilet paper and that would be dishonourable to those brave generations of pranksters to drop now." Howie said, not looking at Travis accusingly from the corner of his eyes at all.

"Whatever, sit." Chris said.

They'd decided that Travis might be 'good' but he wouldn't sink to the level of 'snitch'.

Or that he was too traumatised by the 4 hours he spent hanging on a wall before Percy, Annabeth and Grover had spotted him to snitch on them.

Travis had been beat-red because Annabeth and Katie were either best friends or nearly best friends, so she'd hear about this. And if she thought that he'd done something wrong or whatever… Man, he was not going to blow this after that!

Anyways, Travis could listen in to their plans now and it killed him _so, so freaking much _that he couldn't voice his opinion.

So Connor sat down and started talking timing and distractions like the rest of them (minus Travis).

* * *

><p>Travis walked into Cabin 11 and got jumped by Connor.<p>

"What? Connor what the hell are you-"

Connor pulled a wire which turned on the shower which misted the bathroom up.

By the use of various combos of hitting, smacking, steering and arranging his weight around; Connor sort-of rode Travis into the bathroom and hung on like a bull rider (meaning; for dear life). He threw a coin in the mist and yelled;

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering! Nadine Stoll, Chicago!"

"Connor you-"

He pushed his brother off and was about to hit him when their mom appeared in the mist.

Killing would be later.

"Hi Mummy!" Connor said.

Let's be clear on one thing; it's not 'mommy', it's 'mummy', and they said it with a British accent, which makes it sound sophisticated and not childish like 'mommy'.

She turned to face the brothers.

"Hi boys!" She said. She pushed whatever school assignment she was correcting aside.

"How are you, wow, you've grown! Again! I haven't heard from you in ages! Call, send a postcard, something, I miss you guys!"

"Miss you too Mummy. See, the thing is, Travis has something to tell you." Connor said. Travis shot him a look that was both confused and killer- only to be attempted by professionals.

"What is it, sweetie?" Nadine asked. Travis sort-of just stared at the ground trying not to be there.

"Connor, you tell her." He said finally.

"Okay, it's that the really, pretty vase" –it is worth noting that the vase was not pretty- "that Grandmother" –it is worth noting that that is said with a British accent- "left when she died?"

"Yes, I remember." Nadine said. Her voice was always so calm, with a little raspy to it. The kind of voice that always sounded happy and could guilt the Stoll brothers without even trying, without any intention of it.

"Well, Travis has been feeling guilty recently because it isn't the cat that broke it like he said, it was him."

_Et tu, Brutus? _

Connor you- filthy- pathetic- excuse for a human being- traitor…

And the worst part of it was, he'd just quoted Shakespeare in his internal monologue. This was getting to his head. It hadn't been a month and his head was going classic literature _and_ good citizen.

_Gods help me if I'm still helpable! _

Was this phenomenon normal in all good people? To Google once Google became available to the demigod population of the world.

"What?" Nadine tried to not overreact but for some reason, mothers are always attached to the ugliest things. Travis thought that his kindergarten artwork, which had been placed on the fireplace mantle at its place, was heck of an upgrade even if his 'family' looked like road kill potatoes holding hands under a sun.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Travis listened through the usual talk.

Nadine was funny; when she got mad she was vocal about it, but she was an insanely sweet person, so there was the first clash right there. She never stayed mad and never got really mad. Next; she knew that pulling pranks and stealing stuff were in her sons' nature, so she tried not to be too hard on them. It was a very conflicting speech and it was entertaining, except for right now.

"But it's all in the past, so it doesn't matter." She concluded. Travis wished she'd have figured that out before her little speech. "How's camp? I haven't gotten a letter from Mr D in two weeks, I'm impressed!"

_So must Katie be,_ thought Travis. And that little thought, making Katie proud, made Travis smile and nod and be nice to Connor while Nadine watched.

They answered/asked a few questions and then the IM got cut. Travis turned his head towards Connor.

"_You_." He said, the sound coming straight from his throat.

And that's why the Stolls were running after each other at camp for the next few hours with Travis yelling "'No violence' wasn't a rule!"


	10. Chapter 10 No Snooping

**Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians reading this (I know there's at least one)! I wish you pie, turkey and everything you need for another good year. That sounded sappy... So does this:**

**Disclaimer: It tears my heart like the petals of a rose at the claws of a beast that I do not hold in my hands the rights to Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

**Beat that Apollo! **

**Anyways, it is worth noting that next chapter is the LAST of The Good Bet. Will Travis make it? Will Travis crack like a pinata? Will Travis explode? **

**I know, you wait, enjoy :D **

* * *

><p>10<p>

No Snooping

Travis figured that his grandma would approve too much of this whole 'work' thing for it not to impress Katie (it was like extra credit, right?) so he hadn't totally given up on it. Although he did think that it was a bit stupid that he was stuck sweating like a pig in the Camp Store while everyone was hiding inside a cabin from a heat stroke that Mr D thought would be well included in the camp's daily life.

He was rubbing a piece of paper covered in liquid White-out on the counter. The bottle had said 'flammable' on it and Travis wanted to check it out. He knew that because he'd read the small print on the office supplies last time he'd came here. He'd always thought of small print as a waste of ink, but he had a whole new appreciation for it now.

He thought he might be smelling something burn when someone yelled 'TRAVIS!'

He turned around so violently he threw the White-out tube automatically, by instinct. Luckily he missed, or else the IM would've been destroyed. It was Connor and he was in a… Cage?

Oh my god Jiminy Cricket was right- wishing on a star did work.

"Who put you in a cage?" Travis asked.

"That's not important! But, umm, you know the tunnel legend?"

"What tunnel legend?"

"The thing I was talking about the other day."

"Oh, yeah, what about it- oh…"

The hamster started running and Travis' brain started working.

"Really Connor?"

"Yeah, I wanted to leave a mysterious anonymous note on her bunk and junk, cause girls like that or something. Right? So I left 3 hours ago," before everyone went into hiding, Travis noted, "And, umm, turns out- Silena B really did get Beckendorf to board it up. And he threw in some booby traps so I'm in this cage with this clock counting down to doomsday."

"Doomsday? What do you mean doomsday?"

"It says that in one hour and five minutes it's going to zap me!"

"Zap you?"

"Yeah! Like, run electricity through my body in painful fashion! I like my body with no electricity!" Connor said.

"Look at the bright side, maybe your tongue will swell up and then you won't talk. All you'll be able to do is go ah-ba-ba-ba and people will wonder how big the truck that ran you over was." Travis said. But really the hamster was sprinting and the wheels were turning double speed.

Okay, so maybe yesterday Travis had been channelling murder intentions about his brother through his brain. But that was it, wasn't it? _Brother. _

But running around in secret tunnels that led to other cabins was 'snooping' therefore it wasn't exactly Katie's 'good'. And he wanted Katie's 'good'. He wanted it as much as he'd wanted a brother before he found out what they were.

And Connor was pretty much doomed because Beckendorf had been Styx serious about his booby-traps, so he was going to have to get to the tunnel and rescue the idiot.

"Travis! It's gonna _ZAP _me!" He panicked.

"I'm coming bro!" Travis said, sprinting over the counter of the Camp Store and sprinting off.

He burst into Cabin 11 and tugged a backpack from under his bed and swung it on his back; picking up a flashlight from a shelf.

"Whoa- Travis touched the prank bag!" Eva said.

"Oh my gods- he's going for it!" Howie said.

"You get 'em Travis!" Someone yelled behind him as he ran out of the cabin like a lunatic.

Those 'secret' tunnels that Connor had heard about? Sorry; but Luke had told him all about them ages ago, and he knew exactly where they were.

He sprinted around the Hephaestus cabin two times looking for a sign of the entrance- and then realised that it was the Apollo cabin and that all he was getting were weird looks.

So instead he sprinted to Cabin 9 and he saw a tarp thrown over the side.

_Connor, thank the gods you're such an idiot you don't know how to cover evidence, _he said.

He threw the tarp back and dove in the tunnel.

It was pitch black, so he flicked on his flashlight. The walls were plain earth with metal beams holding up the ceiling, and there brackets on the wall to hold a torch. Oh man, if Travis would have known, he'd have brought one. Torches were so much cooler.

He flashed it onto the ground. He could see Connor's tracks- another mistake stupid had made. Oh well- it was good, now if the tunnel forked he could follow his brother's tracks. He didn't know if it would, all Luke had told him was that it was around Cabin 9 and that it was a really cool place to kiss a girl. That seemed ironic right now.

He jogged down the tunnel calling Travis' name.

The tunnel went on _forever. _The digger had obviously gotten really confused because a tunnel leading from Cabin 8 to 9 shouldn't take this long to jog. It didn't take that long to cross the center green anyways.

Finally he found Connor and he nearly dropped the flashlight when he saw him, because he'd been dreaming of that moment since he was 3 years old and Connor could talk.

Connor was standing in a cage with close together bars looking pathetic(er) (or was it more pathetic? Probably). The door was tied to the wall with heavy chains, with links big enough for Travis to stick 3 fingers in.

There was a clock with red digits that had been counting down time. It was now at 0:24 minutes. There was a battery pack… Thing… on top of each bar with a sticker that showed Zeus and the master bolt, with a horizontal bar going across that said 'Danger: High voltage'.

Gee thanks.

"Hey-Travis!" Connor said when he saw his brother.

"Hey- Stupid!" Travis said, swinging his backpack off his shoulder and dumping it onto the ground. "You really couldn't wait for a group to come here or something? I am going to-"

"Look out!"

The metal beams holding up the ceiling for Travis suddenly swung down and there was a cave-in. Travis hit the deck just in time and kicked his bag forwards so it wouldn't be buried.

"See? Now I'm really going to kill you. No way can we even _think_ about getting out of this now."

"But… Travis your bet with Katie… No snooping, right?"

"Yeah, well…"

"I thought you'd send Chris or someone." Connor said, chocked.

"Which is why you're going to be paying my entry fee to Go Fish for the next 5 summers." Travis said taking chain cutters from his backpack. He dropped them.

"Dude- what the heck, cut the freaking chain!" Connor said.

"Nope," Travis said taking a video camera from his bag, "I need blackmail material."

He pointed the now filming camera at Connor.

"So Connor William Stoll- wait do you have a middle name? Whatever, I honestly couldn't care less. But if I broke the vase from Grandma, who broke the statue thing from Aunt Winifred?"

"Travis." Connor said. The sound came from the bottom of his throat, from where all the deep and threatening sounds came from in movies or something. But Travis couldn't care less. Connie-poo was shorter, and in a cage.

"I am supreme right now Conner, dear. So you tell the camera who broke the statue thing." Connor crossed his arms like he was five.

"Tick tock, tick tock, you're down to 22 minutes Connie-poo."

"I did." Connor muttered.

"Who did?"

"I did."

"Say it louder, will you?"

"I did!" He said. "I broke the stupid statue thing! Travis I am going to-"

"Stay in the cage like a good little boy," Travis said pressing his thumb to the 'stop' button, and slipping the camera back in his backpack, feeling 5% avenged.

He picked up the chain cutters and cut them open so the door would. Sadly, on the other side, it wasn't the same deal. The wall of bars was stuck onto the wall, and the bars were indestructible.

"So… We die?"

"Shut up Connor," Travis said taking a length of rope from his bag. He tied the end to one of the bars with a knot that would've made a girl scout jealous. Or at least made her give him half her cookies.

"Connor come here," Travis said.

"What? Why should- no, uh-uh."

"Yes."

"I just got free from a cage!"

"I'm stuck hauling your butt out of here!"

"I'm recovering from that!"

"I'm still recovering from your birth!"

"I'm younger!"

"I'm older!"

"I'm shorter- your legs are longer you can run better!"

"I just blew a bet to kiss the girl I've wanted to kiss since I'm 14, so get your butt right here right now!"

That's how Connor was stuck running away from the cell bars, tied to it by the waist.

Finally with a POP! the wall popped off its hinges. With a bungee-effect and fall worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos; Connor flew back and landed on top of the bars. With a CRACK worthy of the ER.

"Whoa- you okay?"

"Yeah- my feet crack for the fun of it!" Connor said sarcastically.

"Shut it Connor," Travis said hauling Connor to his feet. "Let's go."

Helping Connor limp, they reached the end of the tunnel which much bickering, threats of abandonment to death by cracked bone, and reminders of the video Travis was going to make twenty million copies of (just in case).

Finally they reached a trap door in the low ceiling.

"I'll get it," Travis said, putting Connor down in a way that was nor delicate nor kind. But Travis figured he had total rights on Connor whether the idiot had a broken foot or not.

He started pushing against the top of it and with a 'POP!' it creaked open a bit.

"Sweet! Pick me up, I'll help you push!" Connor said.

So Travis did and the trap door flew open.

In the middle of the Aphrodite cabin…


	11. Chapter 11 No Kissing

**Wow wow wow, it's been a year since the Lost Hero came out... I remember that day like it was only 365 days ago... *enters flashback but steps out because you're just starring at a girl who's got her nose an inch from her book and make 'no!' and squeaking sounds every now and then, and tells you to shut up or go away or how did you get in my room? when you make a noise***

**I was ever worst when Son of Neptune came out- la tee-hee. **

**Next book; on a Monday. Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday. Okay, let's just stop with my logic and move on to the _last _chapter of 'The Good Bet'. I'd like to thank anyone who's read, everyone who's left a review, those who saved as favorites, etc. This is my second chapter fic on and the first that I'm finishing. So thanks! It went by super fast- but I warned you, not a long story. Hopefully still a good one :)**

**Hecate**

* * *

><p>11<p>

No Kissing

Connor and Travis were sitting outside of Chiron's office, waiting for the Aphrodite counsellor to stop telling her point of the story to him while massaging their ears. You try getting dragged by the ear across Camp to the Big House by a girl who had nails that make harpy claws look like stubs- not fun.

Aphrodite cabin been at least a little merciful and given Connor some ambrosia for his foot- and let's face it- because three girls in there thought they were hot.

Travis felt like breaking it again.

"Umm, bro? Thanks for coming to, you know, bail me." Connor said.

"I couldn't let you get zapped. Mum would've killed me." Travis said.

"Geez, I feel the love." Connor said. "And I'm really sorry about your bet with Katie. Godzilla in there will tell everyone at Camp about this and Katie will find out."

"It's okay," Travis said. "We're cool. You're my brother; I had to help you out."

The door opened and the counsellor gave them one last dark look before stalking off.

Chiron told Connor to come in his office (he'd long since learnt that Connor and Travis should never be told to tell their point of the story at the same time), so Travis was left sitting in the hallway on a plastic chair, all by himself, feeling really crummy.

The big house door swung open to a crying little girl.

"Shh, it's okay Maxi, it's okay; we'll cool you down. Heatstroke isn't that bad."

Crap that was Katie!

CRAP!

Suddenly he wasn't so cool with Connor anymore.

Katie would have to come through this hall to lead that crying little girl to the infirmary and- damn it, sometimes he hated being right.

She was wearing jean shorts, flip-flops and a tank top, to cover as little as possible in the event of the freak heat stroke- and looking extremely pretty while she was at it. She had a heavy farmer's tan, and her brown hair was held completely back by a bandana except for a loose strand dangling behind her ear- that always seemed to be there.

She spotted Travis straight away –despite his really hard efforts to melt in with the wall, opened her mouth, closed it, and walked right past him, to the infirmary with Maxi, biting her lips.

She came out without Sophie a few seconds later and planted herself in front of Travis, hands on her hips.

"What did you do?"

So Travis launched into the full-blown story of his stupid brother and the stupid tunnel and the stupid cave-in and the stupid Aphrodite cabin. She even sat down next to him to listen to his story, which made Travis' heart beat faster.

"So I guess I blew the bet big time and now you'll never-"

Katie put a hand on his cheek, and kissed him.

HOLLYSMOKESTRAVISYOU'!

He closed his eyes and kissed her back.

Their lips unlocked, but their noses were still touching. Travis had caught the scent of her hair; lemon balm- he knew it! And he could count the colors in her eyes (that were looking at him in something other than dissaprobal for once), the number of freckles on her nose (that was touching his- that close lady and germs, that close) and the number of breaths she took.

"You are much, much funnier and much, much sweeter when you're not trying to be good and impressive." Katie said. Travis grinned and kissed Katie again.

"Don't you children have a word for this? Public display of affection or something? Yes, that's it; no kissing." Mr D said lazily walking past them, going down the hall without even stopping.

Travis smiled at Katie.

"Yeah; but I don't have to be good anymore."

The End

9:05, 19 September 2011

6:20 AM, 12 Octovre 2011


End file.
